TY - JOUR T1 - Assessing an outbreak of tuberculosis in an English college population JF - European Respiratory Journal JO - Eur Respir J SP - 976 LP - 978 DO - 10.1183/09031936.00031711 VL - 38 IS - 4 AU - I. Abubakar AU - T. Matthews AU - D. Harmer AU - E. Okereke AU - K. Crawford AU - T. Hall AU - T. Collyns AU - G. Smith AU - A. Barrett AU - S. Baugh Y1 - 2011/10/01 UR - http://erj.ersjournals.com/content/38/4/976.abstract N2 - To the Editors:In October 2008, a sixth form college student in England, UK, who had had a cough for 2 months was diagnosed with sputum smear-positive cavitatory pulmonary tuberculosis. An investigation led to the identification of 19 cases of active tuberculosis among 2,284 students. Here, we describe the outbreak and investigation into the factors associated with active tuberculosis.The study population consisted of students enrolled at the college for daytime courses. All participants were aged >16 yrs. Members of staff who directly taught these students were also screened. Between October 2008 and December 2009, students, friends of the index case and staff at the college were interviewed. The interviews were used to collect demographic and clinical information, including symptoms suggestive of tuberculosis. At the same time, a blood sample was drawn from each participant for interferon-γ release assay (IGRA) testing [1, 2]. Following the screening of household contacts and friends of the index case, the students at the school were assessed in concentric circles of decreasing intensity of exposure in three groups (table 1) [3]. Those with a positive IGRA result from any screening round were recalled for chest radiography and clinical review at a respiratory medicine clinic. Preventative therapy was offered to … ER -